Originally Posted by derpelikan
why it is hard for you to get a creditcard in japan? if you have alien registration and a gaijin card and a income, it should be easy to get one.
my friend waited 2month for his creditcard but got one. he tried ANA card, it took very long to verify all the things , but he finally has a card.
First time (non-Japanese) applicants for a credit card here in Japan may (as
derpelikan inferred, may have some red tape to deal with, but it's doable.
I applied for an AMEX card here in Japan many years ago. AMEX sent a letter to my employer asking him to fill out a form on my appropriateness for a card, along with all other personal info. He just passed it on to me to fill out and send in. Needless to say, I did get the card.
A lot of whether one (as a non-Japanese) can easily get a card depends on showing how "trustworthy" one is. Steady job, same residential address, married with children, etc. Sometimes a guarantor is needed. After all, the conventional wisdom here is that a non-Japanese can just leave the country, leaving behind a mountain of bills, something Japanese cannot do.
I have had colleagues with steady jobs and families still get turned down. Go figure.
I would think you're best chance for a credit card is from a department store or the bank in which you have your cash account, though the aforementioned problems can appear here as well. A case in point:
While I got my first department store card easily enough--just filled out a form being passed out by a female clerk standing next to the department store escalator--I got a shock when I first tried to use it. The credit desk insisted on calling up my guarantor to confirm the purchase (a VCR). OK, I can deal with that. After all, it was my first purchase. I paid off that VCR with regular payments over the next 6 months. The real shock came when I made my next card purchase (had finished paying off the VCR), a 5000 Yen ($40) coffee maker. The credit desk again insisted on calling up my guarantor. I cancelled my credit card right then and there and walked out.
It happens. On the other hand, other department stores I have dealt with have been much more reasonable.
Originally Posted by derpelikan
dont use a usd based card in japan, the 2.5% on each purchase are not that nice.
That's why I keep both domestic (Yen) credit cards as well as international ($) credit cards. You really don't need to incur a large yearly fee on a domestic credit card. I noticed those AMEX cards above, especially the Gold, have a pretty hefty yearly fee (23,100 Yen for the Gold). I have five Japanese credit cards, none of which have a yearly fee over 2000 Yen, and I still get mileage, free travel insurance, etc.